The 7th year of Lily Evans
by elbicho
Summary: Lily hates James Potter. At least thatˋs what she thinks. When they both are made Heads of Hogwarts, she realises that made he isn t the ˋpathetic excuse of a human being she thought he was.
1. Chapter 1

Nobody´s POV

Lily stomped angrily through the train. She couldn't believe it! That pathetic excuse of a human being was really Head Boy! She had thought it would have been Remus Lupin, but James Potter?! He wasn´t even a Prefect. Dumbledore was completely bonkers. Maybe he was high, and that combined with his natural insanity gave birth to James Head Boy Potter. Lily let out an angry huff as she proceeded to look for her three best friends, Marlene McKinnon, Danny Johnson and Dorcas Meadowes. She wanted to say hello to them after the long summer break. Sure, she had to go to the Prefects compartment, but that could wait. Lily saw them sitting in a compartment at the very end of the train. Marlene was rather tall, with baby blue eyes and curly blond hair. She was quiet and nice. She was a hell of a good listener. She was the shoulder to cry on and would always lend you a helpful hand in case you needed it. Danny on the other side was wild and crazy. She didn´t seem to know what manners were, and if she knew, she would ignore them with ostentation. She was lazy and rude, with long nearly black hair and she had one of those rectangular glasses, hipsters like to wear. The typical kid your parents warned you not to talk to because they were bad influence. And Dorcas, well Dorcas was like a cross between them. She had brown wavy hair and blue green eyes. She was that one friend who´ll try to help you no matter what, but was easily offended and would turn into a monster if provoked. When Lily entered the compartment, Marlene immediately jumped up and ran the short way from her seat at the window to the door to hug Lily. She gladly hugged her back. She was happy to see them, she really was. After 6 weeks in her normal and magic less house, she needed somebody who understood her "magical" references and wouldn´t flinch every time she took out her wand, like Petunia did.

"Merlin, Lily, how are you?" Marlene shouted.

"Great, but not for much longer if you keep squeezing me like this!" Lily replied with a chuckle. Marlene apologized quickly and let go of her, sitting back on her place at the window. Meanwhile Dorcas had stood up and hugged Lily, too. The redhead now went over to hug Danny, who was sitting opposite of Marlene, but she just turned around and held her arms outstretched, as if Lily was going to hit her.

"No human contact!" Danny screeched. She really was a weird witch with a huge need of personal space.

"Nice to see you, too!" Lily snapped. Danny just rolled her eyes and muttered a simple "hey".

"How was your summer?" Dorcas asked excitedly, when Lily sat down next to Marlene. "Are you Head Girl?" She asked, just as Lily was about to answer the first question.

"Yeah.." She hadn´t told them. Not that she wasn´t happy about it, that was something she had worked on since the very beginning of first year. She just hadn´t found the right time to write to her friends. She had had other things to worry about. Petunia was, for example, a big problem that got stuck in her head for hours. Lily had met her boyfriend over the summer, Vernon Dursley. It had been one of those dinners where everyone is dressed super formal and smiles and pretends to be polite and happy, but really, you´re dying of awkwardness on the inside. Lily didn´t like Vernon. She couldn´t tell what she disliked about him, but she felt uncomfortable around him. He was a big, beefy man, with a pitiful little moustache growing over his upper lip. Her parents loved him, though. And Lily perfectly understood why: Vernon came from a rich family, had a great education and could look forward to inherit his fathers drill company one day. But for Lily, he was just... boring. He was so normal, she couldn´t handle it. Vernon was an enormous (man) contrast to her life as a witch. That, and the fact that Vernon was scared, not to say disgusted by magic, made Lily dislike him. She was nice to him, anyways. Or at least she tried to.

"... I knew you would be Head, you had to be Head, who else could have been it?" Marlene blabbered happily. "Don´t you have to go to the Prefect compartment? Explain them everything about curfew, duties and stuff?"

"Yeah, Lily, leave." Danny added with a grumpy tone.

"Always happy to be loved." Lily looked at her coldly. Danny would always make rude comments, and Lily would counter them with sarcastic ones. They just had this kind of relationship. "I still have some minutes, and who cares if I arrive some minutes late?"

"You? Well, you would, usually." Dorcas stated with a confused look on her face.

"Well yeah, and I was really looking forward to the whole Head Girl thing until some minutes ago on the platform, where I met a certain toerag ..."

"James?" Danny asked. Lily nodded shortly.

"What about him?"

"He´s Head Boy!" Lily exclaimed. She was happy to see her friends, and laugh and joke with them, no question about it, but she was even happier to be able to complain to someone.

"Was Dumbledore drunk when he decided that?" Danny asked.

"Yes, no, probably!" Lily didn´t know what to think about it.

"Maybe Potter´s just pretending to piss you off?" Marlene asked innocently. Danny instead started laughing her maniac, evil laugh.

"Why is she happy? I do not like it when she´s happy..." Lily stated quietly.

"You know, apart the time you have to spend with James because of Head duties blah, blah, blah," Danny said between two laughs, "you´ll have to share a dorm with him! I mean, just imagine: Him, you, alone, your bedroom right next to his, with only a thin wall separating you from your lover boy. You guys probably have to share a bathroom!" Danny started laughing again at the thought of that. She had a dark sense of humour.

"No, but just imagine the possibilities he´ll have! It´ll be so easy to creep in your room and stalk you at night, so much more opportunities to ask you out and drive you insane! It´ll be so easy to put a little Amortentia in your drink once he finds out you always have juice on your bedside table." Danny continued. Nope, that just couldn't be true, it was a lie she was making up to annoy Lily. It had to be a lie.

"Nope, that´s not true, that´s a lie you made up to annoy me. It has to be a lie!" Lily screamed. "Heads sleep in their common rooms and just meet when there´s something to organize. Right? RIGHT?!" They wouldn´t make her share a bathroom with Potter? He was immature, arrogant, selfish and never cared about anything but his big oh so handsome (notice the sarcasm) head and maybe his Marauder friends. Danny leaned forward, her hands at both sides of her, holding her seat. She had calmed down and was just grinning maliciously. It wasn´t really better.

"You know I hate lying to you," sarcasm clearly audible in her voice, "but remember that Ravenclaw I dated last year? Todd Higgins? Well, he was Head Boy. Shared the Heads Tower with the Head Girl, what was her name again? Linda? Lucy?" Danny drifted away.

"You know, Danny´s right." Marlene looked at Lily with worried eyes, as if she expected her to explode. There was a big chance this was going to happen.

"You know what? You should go to the Prefects compartment. You don´t wanna be late, right?" Dorcas tried to make her leave. Well, she was right. Lily didn´t want to be late her first day as Head Girl. It was just the fact that a black haired boy was probably already sitting in that compartment waiting for her, didn´t really motivate her to stand up. Lily sighed. They were right. Responsibilities were more important.

"I´ll see you guys later!" She said over her shoulder as she stood up and walked out of the door. She started walking towards the front of the train, where the Prefects compartment was located, when she bumped into, hell take him back, James Freaking Potter.

"Hey, I want to take it slow, love." He smirked down at her. Damn his tallness!

"Bugger off, jerk! I don´t have the time and the nerves for your stupidity." Lily retorted. He had just come out of his compartment. Really, couldn´t he, of all the moments which he could have come out, exactly chosen to do so when she wanted to walk there? Lily knew she was exaggerating, and it was probably her fault, but Merlin, it was a lot easier to make it look as if it was his fault. She pushed him out of the way and walked down the corridor.

"Hey Evans, wait!" Lily heard him, him, shout. She started walking faster.

"You know, I´m going exactly where you are going, so it doesn´t make sense trying to run away from me." Potter screamed after her. She just ignored him skilfully. James stopped trying to catch up with her, just the way he had minutes before on Platform 9 ¾. He had tried to talk to her, but Lily had walked away. At first, he had tried to go after her, but then just stopped and looked at a spot in the steam where seconds before a certain redhead had stood. James had hoped she was Head Girl. He had written her some letters, asking her this and begging her to write back, but he figured out she never opened them once she found out from whom they were. She probably burned them in the middle of a hexagon of salt and danced around it to rhythmical beats. James knew Lily wasn´t as happy about him being Head Boy as he was about her being Head Girl. For James, it meant spending time with the love of his life, for Lily it meant being forced to spent time with her archenemy. He stood there a while until he heard a whistle and hurried to get into the train. Sirius had already walked in, searching either for an empty compartment or their friends. Sirius was sick of his attempts to flirt with Lily. When they were all sitting in their compartment, James told his friends everything about his encounter with her. None of them really listened. They were used to this kind of story and knew exactly how it ended. James acted like a git, asked Lily out and then the possibilities varied: Either she just ignored him, screamed at him, slapped him or hexed him. But the bottom line was always the same: Lily angrily stomped off and James was an emotional wreck of misery. Once he finished, nobody said anything for a while. Remus Lupin, the most insightful of his four best friends, decided to break the silence. He was pretty tall and thin, always wore hand-me-down clothes and was covered in scars.

"James, mate, you are a great guy-"

"Yeah, I know that. Tell that Evans, she doesn´t." James interrupted him.

"See, that´s what she doesn´t like about you: You´re narcissistic. I mean, being self-confident is good and everything, but don´t exaggerate it. You really are a nice, dateable boy. Kind of always were, you just never showed her. You stopped being so childish a long time ago and you aren´t a prat, most of the time at least. But acting like one when Lily´s around is pretty counterproductive, if you ask me. You showed her your negative traits, try something new and show her that you´re worth a chance." Remus said, loud and slow like talking to a kid.

"I know that, I just don´t know how to act around her!" He exclaimed desperately.

"So you just decided that acting like a dork would be the best decision." Peter Pettigrew, the fourth and last member of the Marauders, concluded. He was the smallest and well, the fattest of them all. He had blond hair and blue eyes. If you asked anybody in Hogwarts, they´d say he also was the most unpopular and talentless of the four. That still didn´t change the fact that he was as much a Marauder as the other three were. For them, he was worth the same as any other Marauder.

"Well, if you say it like that.. I´m just always so nervous when she´s near me." James said quietly.

"You´re like a lovesick 12 year old, Prongs! Do you even realise how pathetic you are?" Sirius said while biting off the head of a chocolate frog.

"That´s what she said, too. ´You are a pathetic excuse of a human being, Potterˋ" James said with an high, and what he thought, girly voice. Sirius started laughing and nearly choked on his frog, his long black hair falling in front of his eyes. James grimaced him and looked down at his shoes. He felt someone pat him on the back and looked up.

"Don´t worry. Sooner or later she´ll realise how incredibly great you are." Remus told him. James tried to find the sarcasm in his voice. "Shouldn´t you be going? To the Prefects compartment, I mean. Instruct them and stuff. ´Cause if you wanna impress Lily, do something you never did before and don´t show up late."

"I don´t know if I should be grateful or cry." James told him truthfully.

"Funny, that´s exactly what your Mum said about you when you weren´t listening." Sirius said with a wide grin. James did what he thought was best and kicked him in his private parts. Peter laughed loudly. James could formally feel Remus roll his eyes. He left the compartment before Sirius could seek revenge when he felt someone bump into him. It was Lily. God, she looked beautiful.

"Hey, I want to take it slow, love." James smirked the smirk he knew made every girl at Hogwarts melt, just not the one he wished it would.

"Bugger off, jerk! I don´t have the time and the nerves for your stupidity." Ouch, right in the feels. She pushed him aside and started walking down the corridor. James called after her, but she just fastened her speed, her red locks falling down her back.

"You know, I´m going exactly were you are going, so it doesn´t make sense trying to run away from me." James did a second attempt to make her stop, or at least slow her down a bit. He failed miserably. He stood there a while before sprinting down the corridor. Once he had cached up with her he was out of breath. He didn´t say anything. Remus had told him last year that he tended to ruin everything by opening his mouth, so he decided it would be best to just shut up and walk next to her. James looked at her from the corner of his eyes. If you asked James, she had the most beautiful face in the world. Her eyes were the greenest green to ever green, her hair fiery red. She had more freckles than last year, and a light tan. Not too dark, just perfect. She looked extremely relieved when they reached the Prefects compartment. Most, well all of the Prefects were already there waiting for the two seventh years. James sat down on one of the two remaining empty seats, Lily on the other one. James silently thanked all the Gods he knew for making them be one next to the other. He looked around. He wasn´t here for the first time, he had visited Remus here once during their Fifth year. Mostly because he had wanted to see Lily. This compartment was bigger than the rest. The seats were more comfy and there even was a little fireplace in one corner. He looked at the Prefects and recognized some faces. Faye Brenner, for example. Had been a nice one-night-stand back there in the closet. James winked at her. Faye´s pale skin turned into a deep shade of red. He heard an annoyed noise next to him. Wait. James turned around. Was Evans jealous?

"Jealous?" He asked her quietly, leaning down to her side, so she was the only one to hear it. She smacked him right across the chest and muttered trough gritted teeth :

"It´s plain day Potter, weird time to be dreaming." ´Ah, my little sass-god.ˋ James thought. Lily was top-student (James was too, mind that) , always made her homework and kind of never seemed to break the rules, but she had her cheeky side, too. James loved that. Gave it the final touch for her personality. She could balance herself out.

"Okay, so my name is Lily Evans, I´m from Gryffindor, and I´m the new Head Girl." Lily said, to no one in common. She looked at James expectedly. He nearly heard a click when he realised what to do.

"Yes, and I´m James Potter, for those who still don't know that, but that would surprise me. But yeah, I´m Head Boy." James finished. Lily looked at him again. (Wow, two times a day without being forced to, today must be a special day) but this time angrily. The Prefects started saying their names and their house. After everybody had presented him or herself Lily started explaining them what they had to do, where the Prefects bathroom was and they agreed on a day to make the patrol schedule. She looked through some papers she had picked up from a little table at the window.

"Yeah, I think that was all. You are dismissed." Lily said to the little group, throwing the papers on the table again and standing up. The Prefects stood up as well and started walking out the compartment door, some saying goodbye, some just nodding at the Heads. James had tried to pay attention to what was said, but couldn´t stop his mind to drift away anyways. Once all the students had walked out, he picked up the papers Lily had thrown on the table. He was about to start reading them, when she called for him.

"Potter!" She was standing right in front of the door, ready to go to her own compartment. "We have to make two rounds, see if everybody's all right and later check on the firsties and make sure they put on their school robes on time. We should start with the first one, now that we´re both here." She didn´t seem to like the idea of it.

"Yeah, of course, great idea." James stood up, rolled the papers together and put them in the pocket at the back of his trousers. He walked over to Lily who was waiting for him. Lily turned around, missed the door and ran right into the wooden door frame.

"Whoa, hey, Evans, you all right?" James said, looking seriously worried.

"Yes, I happen to be perfectly well 'cause I didn´t just nearly broke my nose!" Lily yelled at him, as if it was his fault she didn´t look were she was going. James chuckled quietly.

"Let me see." He nearly whispered. He wanted to cup her face with his hands, but she turned away. Wouldn´t let him touch her, would she.

"Hey I´m not poisonous, you know. It´s not like you´ll have to disinfect you every time I touch you." He said with a little, kinda sad smile.

"I don´t have to worry about that. You won´t get that far to actually touch me." Lily had intended to say it in a rude way, and yeah, it was mean, but now she had said it, she felt bad, looking in his hurt face. He looked rather cute like that, really. "Would you mind going away? I had planned on going through that door." James had walked right in front of the door when he hurried over to "help" her.

"Didn´t work that well first time you tried, huh?" He joked drily. Lily let out a purposely fake sounding laugh and shove him out of the way. Guilty feeling or not, he was Potter, he didn´t deserve better. They started walking down the corridor, eventually stopping to say hello to friends, classmates (or in Potter´s case) team mates. James was walking a bit behind her, occasionally smiling to familiar faces or winking at giggling fourth years. He had just said ´hiˋ to Markus Sanders, one of the Gryffindor beaters, and nearly bumped into Lily when he wanted to set off again. She had turned around and was looking at him in, who would have thought, an angry manner.

"Why are you walking behind me?" She asked. More like, spat out.

"I...was enjoying the view of your lovely back?" James answered insecurely. He thought that was a beautiful way of saying he was staring at her butt.

Lily glared at him. She hadn´t exactly shouted at him till now, but James could feel it coming, she would burst out any moment. She had remained nice, well as nice as she could be to him. Let´s say she had stayed civil. And then James made that comment. Way to ruin a moment, buddy.

"Listen," She said, poking a finger accusingly in his chest, "this is my last train ride to Hogwarts, if you don´t count the one back, but that´ll be a ride to Kings Cross. The point is," She poked him again "I don´t want you to ruin everything. You´re Head Boy now, and I really can´t change that, so I´m going to try make the best out of it. I´m not going to let you ruin my last year in Hogwarts because of you." She poked him one last time. "Now we´re already talking about it: Sharing a dorm won´t change anything. I´m probably gonna stay in the Gryffindor common room most of the time, so that won´t be a problem. If you come late to a meeting or put stupid stuff like Quidditch above them, you´re gonna pay for it. And if you just think about asking me out, you will regret it." She glared at him one last time and then turned around to check on some second years who had managed to set a backpack on fire. James had come to the conclusion it would be better to walk next to Lily. Wasn´t really better for her. Now he was just nearer. The round was over quicker than she expected. They arrived at their compartments, one next to the other. James stopped in front of his one, and leaned on the door frame, running his hand through his hair.

"So, about the second round, when are we doing it?" He asked, crossing his muscular arms in front of his even more muscular chest. Lily examined him from head to toe. She may hate him with her heart and soul, but Jesus, he was hot! She couldn´t deny it. He had gotten taller over the summer and was unnaturally tall now. His muscular body fitted well with his height, albeit. He had a tan, too, though a bit darker than Lily´s. His hair was a bit shorter than usual, as if he had cut it recently. He had hazel brown eyes, most of the time framed with square, black glasses. They looked nearly identical to those that Danny wore.

"Erm, Evans? Earth to Evans?" James asked, snapping his fingers two times. "Do you really feel all right?"

"Yeah, I´m okay. What were you saying?" Lily wasn´t really sure if she was mentally all right. She had thought nice, again nice, things about Potter. She must´ve hit her head harder than she thought.

"About the second round. When are we doing it?" He repeated, ruffling his hair once again.

"Oh, yeah, of course." Lily rubbed her hands on her jeans. She was feeling nervous, all of a sudden. "Erm, we probably should meet like, 45, 30 minutes before we arrive."

"Sounds good. See you later, alligator." He winked at her and entered his compartment. She stood in the corridor and stared at his compartment door. "After a while crocodile.." She whispered to the closed door. Lily stared at it, not even wondering why Potter knew a Muggel reference. She didn´t realise she was still standing there until her own compartment door opened and Dorcas head peeked through a small gap between the door frame and the door leaf.

"Lily! There you are! We were already wondering were you were." Dorcas said, moving aside so Lily could enter. "We´re playing Exploding Snap. Fancy to join us?" She said, sitting back next to Marlene.

"I´m winning!" Informed her Danny. Lily sat down next to her. Danny shuffled the cards. The rest of the ride was over quickly. They played two more times, talked about their summers and other stuff. They had all been in some place, visited family or whatever. But Lily, she had stayed home. It had been awful. Her Mum wanted her to make peace with Petunia. Her parents never knew what to do when the two girls started fighting. As kids, the two sisters had been very close, and then, Lily got her letter. Now she was thinking about it, their relationship had started to fall apart before they knew she was a witch. Petunia started to hate Lily when they met Severus. But all in all, Lily didn´t have much to tell about her summer. Dorcas on the contrary, had a lot to talk about. She had met some guy, and was heels over head in love with him. It was a typical summer flirt. Yeah, maybe they had met some times, but they´d probably never see each other again. Lily didn´t dare tell that Dorcas. After all, it was true that this was her last train ride to Hogwarts, and she didn´t want to ruin the mood. It was perfect, until-

"Evans, erm, we should be going if we want to check on everybody before we arrive." Potter. He had opened the compartment door and was now waiting outside.

"Yeah, coming." Lily stood up and stopped at the door. "I don´t think I´ll have time to come back later, so I´ll probably see you in the Great Hall."

"See you later." Her three friends said as Lily left. She was standing next to Potter, closing the door slowly.

"Shall we go then?" He asked shyly, gesturing with one hand to the nearly empty corridor. Just a trolley full of sweets was standing deserted in front of an open compartment door, it´s owner probably taking money from some kids.

"Let´s get this done." Lily said, trying to sound as less enthusiastically as she could. They stopped every now and then to tell little First years to change to their school robes and to don´t bother about their trunks, the House elves would bring them to the castle. They didn´t really talk to each other. Lily saw his school robes, the typical red and golden Gryffindor uniform, the Head Boy badge pinned to his chest. He must have changed before he went to pick her up, like Lily had. This round took them longer than the first one. They had to stop more often. Lily had never really realised how many students Hogwarts had until then. They had just arrived at the front when the train came to a halt. Students in their full robes came out of the compartments, making a crowd in front of the doors, waiting for them to open. They all pushed each other to get out. Lily wondered how nobody ever got seriously injured. Once she had made her way out, most of the students were already on their way to the castle. Hagrid, the Game Keeper, was standing on the middle of Hogsmeade train station, trying to gather all the First Years around him.

"Lily! James!" He screamed, his beetle like eyes glowing with joy. Lily hadn´t even realised James had stayed by her side. "How are you? How was your summer?" Hagrid now asked, pulling Lily to a bone braking hug. Once he had let go of her, he hugged James, too.

"It was great, really. We were in Australia with Mum, Dad and Sirius." James said, grinning at the half giant.

"That´s good, but you should be going to the carriages, we don´t want you to miss them, do we?" Hagrid smiled at them friendly. "And make sure you visit me every now and then!"

"We will, I promise. We´ll see you at Hogwarts." Lily felt like she had said that last sentence a hundred times that day. The platform was still packed with students, you could barely move without getting kicked in the back or something. Lily pushed her way to the carriages, James following her. It seemed to take ages till they got there. There were just two left, one of them already setting of.

"I guess we´re taking this one then." James said, walking towards the lonely carriage, hands in his pockets. He sat down on the left side, Lily opposite of him.

"What even pulls the carriages?" James asked, as theirs sat off. "I mean, we´ve had nearly all charms, but I never came across one that pulls something." He looked at her.

"Don´t you remember? We did this in 4th or 5th grade."

"Not really, no. We talked about the carriages?" He asked stupidly.

"Not exactly. But we talked about Thestrals, in Care of Magical Creatures. Those weird horses you can only see if you saw somebody dye?" She more asked than answered in an unsure tone. Care of Magical Creatures wasn´t exactly her best subject.

"Oh yeah, I remember, we were feeding the air in the forbidden forest. Boring." He prolonged the o as long as he could. Lily just rolled her eyes and looked out of the window. It was pretty dark now, but she could still see the outline of an enormous caste. Hogwarts. Home. The carriage started slowing down and finally stopped near the wooden front door. A swell of heat welcomed them when they entered. They saw Peeves the Poltergeist flying above some third years, throwing green, slimy balls at them.

"Does he ever stop with that nonsense?" Lily asked angrily to no one directly as she made her way through the screeching students. Most of them were already sitting on their House tables. James spotted his friends at the end of the table.

"I´m gonna go over there, where my mates are sitting." James pointed at their direction and bent down a little to talk to Lily, as if she didn´t hear him if he was standing straight. She nodded shortly and disappeared to somewhere at the middle of the table, where James guessed her friends were sitting. He instead, sat down next to Peter.

"When´s the sorting going to start? I´m starving!" Sirius cried leaning his head against Remus shoulder, who was sitting next to him and in front of Peter.

"McGonagall´s already coming with the firsties, don´t you see?" Remus answered in an annoyed voice. He shove Sirius away and looked at McGonagall. She was walking down the path between the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw tables. The little first years were following her, most of them looking up at the enchanted ceiling or waving at older siblings. Once McGonagall reached the staffs stable she brought a stool, a roll of parchment and an all too familiar looking hat. She placed the stool between the first years and the staffs table, the hat on it. There was utter silence, then the hat began to sing. You couldn´t really tell from where his voice came, but it was loud and powerful. James wasn´t really listening, he didn´t have to. He knew the hat would welcome everybody, say some things about the House founders, and then tell them to all stick together because dark times were coming and blah, blah, blah. He was

staring at Lily. She was sitting at the middle of the table, surrounded by her friends. She was leaning back on her seat playing with her fork when one of her friends nudged her and whispered something. Lily turned around and caught James staring at her. He smiled at her, not his usual arrogant, crooked smirk, no, it was a genuine, happy smile. Lily smiled back and turned around again. This happened so quickly, James wasn´t even sure it had happened at all. The hat had apparently stopped singing, then all students started clapping now. James looked at the front. The applause died down and McGonagall rolled open her parchment.

"I will read out your names, you will come to the front and sit down on the stool. The hat will then decide in which house you belong to." McGonagall said to the First years. She called out the first name. A little girl with blonde pig tails was sorted into Hufflepuff. The table at the middle of the hall cheered loudly. The next kid, Roger Nicklestone, was made a Slytherin. This time, the table at the end of the Hall erupted with cheers. And so the sorting went on. The last kid, a black haired girl named Susie Meminger, was sorted into Ravenclaw. Once the applause died down, Dumbledore stood up from his seat in the middle of the staffs table. The hall was completely silent now. The old man stretched out his arms, as if trying to embrace them all.

"Welcome! And for the elder ones, welcome back!" He said, smiling widely. "I am very pleased to see you all, but before I bore you all, I´d like you all to have a meal!" The hall erupted in claps and shouts of astonishment when the golden plates on the tables started filling themselves with food.

"Finally!" James heard Sirius say from the other side of the table. Sirius didn´t wait and served himself some mashed potatoes. James threw a last glance at Lily before helping himself some potatoes, too.

"So, when are we doing our welcoming prank?" Sirius asked, still chewing on some steak.

"First swallow, then talk." James told him off.

"Aren´t we gonna do it this Sunday, like every year?" Peter asked, pouring some pumpkin juice in his glass and nearly spilled it out.

"Yeah, but last year we had it all planned, and this year we don´t even have an idea." Stated Remus. It was true. All the other years, the Marauders planned a great prank they pulled the first Sunday after the term started, but this year, they just hadn´t found the time. James and Sirius had been in Australia, Peter in France, and Remus had visited his aunt.

"We could think of something and then do it when we have it all planned out." Suggested Sirius.

"Do you really think you should do this, James?" Remus asked now, taking a sip from his glass.

"What do you mean? Why shouldn´t I do this?" James asked him confused.

"I´m just saying. You´re Head Boy, shouldn´t you be, I don´t know, responsible?" Remus asked now.

"Don´t be silly, Remus, who cares if he pulls a little prank. It´s not like it´s going to kill anybody." Sirius agreed with James. He was drinking some of his juice now himself.

"Lily would care. She´d be disappointed." Remus said, looking directly at James. The latter one had stopped in his tracks, his fork hanging in mid-air, his mouth slightly opened.

"Do you think so?" James asked looking at Remus, a desperate look in his eyes. Remus saw the effect his first words had had on James. He took his chance to fully change James´ mind and added:

"Yes, I´m sure of it. She´ll think it would be immature and mean."

"Don´t tell him lies, Remus. Evans will probably think it´s funny and laugh and be happy and marry you." Sirius assured him. James wasn´t sure what to do.

"What do you think, Wormtail?" James asked the plump boy. Peter nearly choked on his steak.

"I...I don´t know. Remus is right, you should be an example for the younger ones and behave," Peter seemed like he didn´t know what to do, either. He didn´t want to disagree with none of his friends. Remus smiled at him encouragingly, Sirius on the other hand wanted to disagree with him, but Peter continued: "But we´re not really hurting anybody with our pranks, right? It doesn´t have to be a big prank, we could just do something, one last time. For old times sake." Peter finished.

"See? Pete´s right. One last time, than you can do whatever you think is right. But we´re doing this welcoming prank!" Sirius slammed his fist on the table to give his words more emphasis, and nearly knocked over his plate on the

process.

"I still don´t think you should do this." Said Remus.

"For old times sake." Sirius repeated Peters words. James looked at both of them, and then at the middle of the table. Lily was laughing at something one of her friends had said. She was slightly leaning back, holding her stomach with both her hands. She was beautiful.

"One last time, and without saying directly that it was us." James said finally, letting out a sigh. Sirius instead let out a cry of victory. Some students turned their heads around to see what had happened, but went back to their conversations once they found out it was nothing important. One of these heads had been Lily Evans´. She was sitting next to Danny somewhere in the middle of the Gryffindor house table. She turned around when she heard a scream from the far end of table. Sirius Black was laughing his barking laugh, Remus Lupin, who was sitting next to him, just shook his head disapprovingly. Peter Pettigrew was looking at Lupin, an unsure smile on his lips, and Potter, well Potter was looking at her again. He blushed slightly and smiled at her. Again. Lily didn´t knew why, but she felt like she had to smile back. That little smile of his, it was just so genuine and hopeful, she had to. Lily shook her head. Had she really been smiling at Potter? Out of her own will? She shook her head again, just to make sure no thoughts about Potter could creep back in again.

"Pass the salt." Dorcas looked at Lily. No reaction from the redhead. "Lily, would you pass the salt, please?" Lily still didn´t react. She was staring mind absently at her plate. "Don´t worry, I´ll get it myself." Dorcas said mildly offended. Lily bolted up, as a hand reached near her plate.

"Huh?" She asked.

"Too late, Lils, too late." Dorcas answered, stuffing half a sausage in her mouth.

"What were you thinking about, anyways?" Marlene asked Lily now.

"Nothing important." Well, it was true. Potter wasn´t important, right? And it wasn´t important that Lily realised how soft his lips looked, even from a great distance, or how his hazel brown eyes lit up when he talked about something he loved. It wasn´t important that Lily thought his glasses looked cute, especially then when they sat a little crooked on his nose. It wasn´t important that she actually wasn´t bothered by his presence, that she actually enjoyed it. She knew she didn´t actually hate him with her heart and soul, but knowing doesn´t mean accepting, right? She didn´t think it was important that she

actually may like James Potter. She just hadn´t realised that. For Lily, he could be a good friend, if it wasn´t for the fact that he was a heartbreaker, that he thought he was Gods gift to the world and treated everybody like they were scum. That he was a childish, ignorant git. She didn´t realise that she had actually fallen for him, a long time ago, and that it would take her a long time to accept that. Lily just thought he was aesthetically okay.

It was the end of the feast, Dumbledore had held his speech about the school rules, forbidden objects/places and the world outside of Hogwarts. It was a dark world, and Lily knew that, especially she, a muggleborn. But she didn´t care about that right know. McGonagall stopped her right as she was about to follow her friends out of the Great Hall, James in tow.

"Miss Evans, if you follow me, please. I will lead you to the Heads tower." McGonagall said, not even waiting for an answer, and continued walking. Lily bid goodbye to her friends and told them she´ll meet them in the Great Hall the next morning. She fastened her speed, seeing that McGonagall and James were nearly out of sight by now.

"I would like the pair of you to patrol tonight, as I assume you haven´t made a patrol yet. Am I right?" McGonagall asked James. He nodded. Lily was out of breath when she reached them. She bumped into McGonagall, who had stopped in front of a painting of an old and what seemed like drunk man. The Professor turned around to give Lily a stern look. She apologized quickly and glanced at James, who had started giggling uncontrollably.

"This is the entrance to the Tower, you are allowed to chose a password yourselves." McGonagall said, turning to face the painting. "Open." She demanded. The man grinned at her, showing his nearly toothless mouth. He swung open and McGonagall passed through the small passage in the wall. James and Lily followed. The tower was bigger than expected. It had two wooden staircases at both sides. In the middle of the room, on the opposite side of the entrance was a big fireplace, a comfy looking sofa in front of it. There were two armchairs at each side of the sofa, both with lots of cushions. Under the staircases were two doors.

"The one over there," McGonagall said, pointing at the door under the right staircase, "leads to the bathroom. The other one to a little library. The right staircase leads to Mr Potters dormitory, the left one to Miss Evans´. You have a little time now before you have to go patrolling," McGonagall added as she started walking towards the portrait door, "I wish you the best of luck. Good

night." The two seventh years bid their goodbyes too before looking around the room. It was all in reddish colours, the walls, the armchairs, everything.

"This is life." Said James, plumping down on the sofa.

"I´m gonna go see my room." Lily just answered and walked over to the staircase. She stopped in front of the mahogany door. Lily read the golden letters that were attached to the door.

´Lily Evans, Head Girl, 1977.´

She took a deep breath before opening the door. The room was slightly bigger than her old dorm, but like that one and the Head common room, all in red. A window was opposite of the door, a wooden desk in front of it. The room contained the typical four-poster bed, a wardrobe and two chairs. She let herself fall onto the bed. It was even comfier than the ones in the hospital wing. Lily had the impression that the blankets swallowed her. She didn´t want to get up from there ever again. She felt like she could explode from the amount of food she had eaten on the feast, but lying here, alone with just silence and peace, made her feel a thousand times better. She closed her eyes and let all sink in. She had nearly fallen asleep when she heard a knock on the door. She opened her eyes and groaned. She slowly got up and walked to the door. The moment she opened it Potters hand immediately went to his hair. He had changed to what Lily thought were his pyjamas. Grey jogging pants and a white shirt.

"Hey. Did I bother you?" He asked, putting his hands in his pockets.

"Your existence bothers me." Lily replied coldly. She knew that wasn´t a nice thing to say, but he was Potter. He didn´t deserve better.

"I´m sorry?" James looked like he didn´t knew what to say or to do. In that moment, Lily saw something that was rarely seen on him. Sadness. He looked hurt. Lily mentally shook her head and tried to ignore the guilty feeling that was sneaking up in her stomach. She didn´t bare to look at him. She wouldn´t stand seeing the pain in his hazel eyes. Instead, she decided to look at a spot above his shoulder.

"What do you want?" Lily asked, trying to sound more harsh than she felt was necessary to. He was a mean, bullying, arrogant git. He needed someone that didn´t treat him like a god. That was good for him, Lily reminded herself.

"McGonagall said till we don´t have the duties organized, we should patrol.

But if you don´t feel like it tonight, I can do it alone." He said, looking down at his hands. Lily couldn´t stand him, looking like this. He looked so shy and vulnerable, this wasn´t the James Potter she knew. She wanted him to be cocky and happy. She wanted to see the crooked smirk on his lips, so she wouldn´t feel bad for insulting him.

"No, it´s okay. I´m coming down in a minute." Lily said hastily, closing the door. She turned around and walked towards her trunk. She took off her robes and threw them on the trunk. She untightened her tie and rolled up the sleeves of her shirt, so that she was just wearing the button-down shirt and the skirt of her typical school uniform. Her hair was ruffled from lying on the bed. She searched for her comb. Once she got rid of all the knots in her hair, she walked towards the door. James was sitting on one of the armchairs, his legs swung over the edge of one of the armrests. He had some parchment on his lap and was doodling on it when Lily reached him. He hadn´t noticed her yet. Lily cleared her throat.

"We can go now if you´re ready." Lily told him. He stood up quickly and threw the parchment on the armchair. Lily recognised it as the one he had taken from the Prefects compartment. She walked towards the portrait entrance. James stopped in front of it, letting her go first. When they had both passed through the passage, Lily stopped in front of the portrait.

"What should we chose as a password?" Lily looked at the drunk man, who was looking in his empty whisky bottle.

"I don´t know. You can chose, if you want. I don´t really care." James said.

"Okay, then what about... Darth Vader?" Lily looked at him sideways. They were both standing in front of the portrait, looking at it.

"Darth Vader? What the heck is Dart Vader?" James looked questioningly at her.

"That´s a character from a Muggle movie." Lily explained, now turning to him. "I don´t really like it, but a little boy from my neighbourhood who I used to babysit loves it."

"Darth Vader.." James scratched his chin. "Erm, Mr Portraitman? We would like to have ´Darth Vader´ as the password. Is that okay with you?" James asked the drunken man. The latter one nodded grinning his toothless grin, then turned around to look for a full bottle.

"Okay then, let´s go!" James said. "Left or right?" He then asked Lily. She shrugged her shoulders. "Okay, so we´re going right." James said and started walking down the corridor, Lily walking next to him. They opened classroom doors every now and then to see if anybody hid in them, but that was it. Lily threw him a glance sideways. She was going to work together with James Potter this year. ´This is going to be an interesting year.´ Lily thought, as she opened another classroom door.


	2. Chapter 2

Okay, sorry that it took me so long, but yeah, school and everything. I dont own anything, and yeah, just enjoy.

Nobody´s POV

Lily stood in front of the library door. She still hadn´t found the time to look around there. She opened the door a bit and peeked through it. Her jaw dropped in awe. This library wasn´t as big as the one everybody in Hogwarts has access on, but it is still gigantic. The books piled up till the magically expanded ceiling. Enormous bookshelves were standing one next to the other, a wooden ladder leaning on one of the shelves. There was even a little fireplace. The sunrays that came from the window soaked the room in light. Lily could see little motes of dust flying around. She opened the door completely and walked towards one of the shelves. She let her fingers roam over the spines of the old books. Lily fished out a book. She wiped away the dust and, as a precautionary measure, blew on it.

"Elementary transfiguration charms." Lily read out aloud. This was exactly what she needed. Lily walked towards the big desk that stood in the middle of the room. She threw her bag on the floor and sat down on one of the chairs. It was Monday and teachers had already given them a barefaced amount of homework. She had to write an essay about transfiguring human body parts in other things. She let her head hang over the back of the chair and groaned loudly. Some people love Transfiguration, some people hate it, and then there´s Lily: If Transfiguration was a person, she´d rip off it´s ears and make a necklace out of them, matching to the earrings made out of it´s toes. She had to write a 3 inches essay, hadn´t even started yet and was already fed up with it. Lily groaned one last time before opening the book on the chapter about human transfigurations. She nearly finished rereading it for the second time when the door opened. Lily looked up. She would talk to anybody, anybody, that´d stop her from continuing with this torture. It was Potter. Okay, maybe she wouldn´t talk to anybody.

"Hey." James smiled at her and sat down on a chair in front of her. Lily grunted.

"Watcha doing there?"

"Hmm, I´m holding a book, looking at it, occasionally turning over pages. I´d say I´m chasing dragons." Lily said, crossing her arms and leaning back on her chair. James chuckled.

"So you´re reading. What are you reading?"

"A book."

"About?"

"How to mind your own business. You should read it, too. It´s very helpful, you know."

"You don´t wanna tell me." James said, scratching a spot under his chin.

"No way!? How could you tell?" Lily asked, trying to sound as sarcastic as she could. James chuckled again. It drove her insane. Why is he happy? He isn´t supposed to be happy!

"Okay, you don´t wanna tell me. I get that." James said, nodding, as if trying to put more emphasis to his words. "But there´s another way for me to find out." Lily put on a stupid face and wanted to ask what way, when James´ hand snapped forward and, before Lily even realised what had happened, her book was in James´ grip.

"Hey!" Lily shouted angrily. She leaned forward to snatch her book back, but James was too fast. Lily silently cursed his damn Quidditch reflexes.

"Uuh," James said, prolonging the u and turning the book in his hands. Lily had given up trying to get it back and leaned back on her chair again. "Elementary transfiguration charms." He flicked through some pages. "What do you need it for?" He threw the book back at her.

"For the Transfiguration essay?" Lily said, sounding annoyed.

"Transfiguration...essay?" James asked slowly.

"McGonagall gave us an essay. 3 inches about the transfiguration from human body parts to something else." Lily said, bending down to search for her quill, ink and some parchment.

"And you need a book for that?" She heard James´ voice from the other end of the table. She got up and hit her head on the lower side of the table board. A loud thud filled the room and Lily felt pain shoot through her head. She let out a cry of pain and held her head on the spot were she felt a bruise already growing.

"Ouch, Evans, you all right?" She heard James´ voice again. Lily sat up straight again and nodded. She tried to open the bottle of ink, but couldn´t.

"Don´t you wanna go outside? I mean, it´s probably the last beautiful day of the year." James said, taking the bottle. Lily wanted to protest, she didn´t need help, especially not from him, but it was too late. He had already opened it with a silent ´plop´.

"Nah, gotta finish this." Lily said, forced herself to smile as a thanks and took the bottle back.

"Okay then. But I´m going. I´ll be at the tree by the lake with Sirius, Remus and Peter, if you change your mind." James said, standing up and walking away. There was no way Lily would change her mind, and both of them knew it. Her gaze returned to her parchment, when he reached the door. He turned around and said with a smile:

"I hope I see you later."

"I hope you don´t." Lily retorted, but she was smiling as well. And this time, she didn´t have to force it. ´Still doesn´t mean I like him.´ Lily thought. ´I can be nice to him but hate him anyways. It´s ridiculous if we just bicker around all the time. I want to be a good Head Girl, and that just works if we work together.´ James winked,turned around and closed the door behind him. Lily looked down at her blank parchment. She thought for some moments, inserted the quill in the ink and laid in on the parchment.

"Transfiguration on humans." Lily wrote down. She inserted the quill again and bit her lip, thinking.

"Okay, Lily. You can do this. You read that stupid chapter twice. You know how to do this." She muttered to herself. Lily let out a sigh of despair, threw the quill in the bottle and leaned back on her chair again. "Glorious accomplishment, Lily!"

Four hours later, she was still sitting on the same chair, on the same place. She hadn´t gotten any further on her essay, but she had folded two parchments to look like mice (origami had always been a hidden talent of hers,) and had managed to enchant them to life. She picked a fight between them and cheered them on. She had extra build a stadium out of pens and crayons she had brought from home and had even drawn a little colourful flag and cutted it out. The bigger mouse was biting off the ear of the smaller one. Lily was laughing and clapping loudly. The parchment with her essay was lying unnoticed under one of the bookshelves that were near the table. It was getting dark outside. Heavy black clouds stained the sky. The fire was crackling in a corner, filling the room in a comfortable warmth and bathed it in half shade. Lily looked at the grandfather clock on the wall in front of her. It was 19:30. Lily got to her feet so jerkily that she hit her knees on the edge of the table. Today just wasn´t her day. Dinner started in half an hour and she hadn´t even started on her essay yet. She sat back on her chair for some seconds, rubbing her aching knees and then stood up. This time more carefully. She picked up all the scraps of paper the mice had produced while they were fighting and threw them in the dust bin. Additional she put all the pens in the pencil case. Lily looked under the table. Where the heck was her essay? She crawled on the floor, searching for it.

"Here essay, come here. Where are you?" Lily whispered in a high voice. She frantically scanned the floor with her hands. She didn´t even notice how the library door opened and a black haired boy eyed her weirdly. Lily´s head suddenly shot up in the direction of the dust bin. She crawled towards it, almost tripping over her own hands.

"Where are you?" She screamed at the bin, sitting on her knees and throwing out the trash and smoothing crumpled parchments. She let out a cry of despair and anger and lain down, her arms outstretched at both her sides, her gaze directed towards the ceiling. She was trying to calm down and counted the wooden fesses, when a head popped up from her right side. Lily jolted up out of shock and smacked her forehead against the head of the other one.

"Ouch, Evans! What are you doing?"

"Potter?!"

Yep, today definitely wasn´t her day. James had bend down to ask her if she was alright, and the next thing he remembered was pain shooting through his head.

"What were you doing?" He asked her, sitting down next to her.

"Doubting my capacity of remembering, what does it look like?" Lily told him.

"I don´t know, looked like you were desperately trying to get a place at the looney bin." James answered smirking. Lily glanced at him. "Anyways, what were you searching?"

"My essay." Lily answered and tucked up her legs.

"Did you try out Accio?" James asked her, removing a hair from her jeans.

"No.." Lily internally face palmed herself for being so stupid. She felt James take out his wand from his pocket next to her.

"Accio Evans´ essay." She heard him mutter. A crumpled piece of paper came flying from under one of the bookshelves and got stuck between the table leg and the chair leg. Lily heard a disruptive noise and the parchment shot through the two wooden legs and into James´ hand.

"Ups, sorry." He said, smoothing the parchment and looking at it. "You only wrote the headline." He stated surprised. "Are trying to tell me that you spent," he looked at his wristwatch, "nearly 4 hours in here and just wrote a headline?" All of a sudden, Lily felt embarrassed. She shrugged her shoulders and looked at her feet. Her shoelaces were untied.

"Why did you make such a fuss about it being lost when you just wrote the headline?" James asked her, leaning down on his elbows. He seemed amused by the situation. Too amused for Lily liking. She shrugged her shoulders again.

"I don´t know. I kinda forgot that I didn´t really finish it."

"Didn´t really finish it? You didn´t really start!" James really was enjoying this way to much.

"I know." Lily huffed, leaning down on her elbows as well.

"You can copy off mine. Change a bit the sentences and the order so Minnie doesn´t realise it´s the same, but yeah." James turned his head to look at her. ´I don´t need help´ Lily repeated herself. ´Not from him."

"Nah, thanks. I´ll manage it alone." Lily said standing up and patting the imaginary dust from her trousers.

"You mean like the way you managed to write three words during four hours?" He said grinning widely.

"Like that, yeah." Lily answered offended. She walked over to the table and sat down on her chair. James turned around sideways to face her and shifted his weigh to one of his elbows.

"Before you start: Are you aware that you just have," he looked at his wristwatch again, "about 20 minutes to write 3 inches about something that you don´t understand?" James asked her, still grinning widely.

"I do understand this!" Lily protested, throwing the quill she had picked up on the table again.

"Then why did you just write 3 words in 4 hours?" He asked maliciously.

"Would you stop repeating that!" Lily screamed, getting really annoyed now.

"Why? Is it because you don´t want to admit that you don´t understand something?" He asked, grinning even more maliciously.

"Do you see why I don´t wanna go out with you?" James´ smile slowly faded away.

"Okay, I´ll stop." He said, getting up and sitting down on a chair in front of her. "You can still take my offer, though."

Lily took out a new parchment from her bag. The old one was too crumpled. She wrote down the same headline.

"Thanks, I got this." Lily answered, opening the book at the chapter for human transfiguration. James stood up and walked to the door.

"I´ll be back in a minute."

"Don´t bother to hurry up." Lily answered. She had written down some sentences when the door opened and James came back in.

"My essay. Wrote it half an hour ago with Remus in the common room. If you wanna compare it later, I mean." He said, holding it in front of her. Lily looked back and forth from the paper to his face. He seemed serious. There was no trace of a joke or a prank in his features. "Just take it." Lily slowly stretched out her hand to grab the parchment. Their fingers brushed slightly when she took it. Lily could feel a tingly feeling creeping up in the depths of her stomach. ´You´re hungry, Lily. Just hungry.´ She muttered a silent thanks and quickly looked down. She could feel her cheeks turning into the colour of her hair.

"I´ll see you at dinner then." James said, walking out. Lily let out a breath she hadn´t even realised she was holding. She closed her eyes and counted to ten. When she opened them, she looked at the clock. 15 minutes till dinner. Theoretically it didn´t matter when you went to dinner, as long as you´re back in your common room till curfew, but she had promised her friends she would meet them in fifteen minutes. She shook her head to completely get rid of that uncomfortable nervous feeling. She took one last deep breath and looked at the parchment she had just taken. ´Transfiguring human parts.´, was written on top of it. Lily read it through. James had a really messy handwriting, and she struggled on some words that were either hard to read or covered by ink stains, but all in all, it was surprisingly well written. Lily tried to find all the important points and include them in her own essay. 20 minutes later she was done. She was confident that she had done a good job, a lot better than she would have all on her own. Lily gathered all her things and stuffed then in her

bag. She threw it over her shoulder and left the Heads Tower. She shivered slightly as a breeze of cold air passed next to her. Somebody had opened one of the windows in the corridor. She walked towards it and leant forward, propping her elbows on the windowsill. A gust of wind blew open her robes. Lily held her them tighter around her waist. A loud thunder resounded. Lily looked at the sky. Dark clouds covered it till the horizon. It smelled like rain. Lily let her eyes roam over the landscape. The forbidden forest extended before her eyes. The leaves of the big, scary looking trees produced an odd sound as the wind passed through them. James had been right ( ´Woah, so it´s really possible´). It had probably been the last beautiful day of the year. Another thunder resounded. Lily stretched out her hand. Little drops fell on it. The wind was howling and slashed the rain on the castle walls, and in that moment, through the open window. Lily screamed and backed away, angrily slamming the window shut. For being little drops, she was surprisingly wet. Dripping wet. A little puddle was even forming at her feet.

"Bloody weather." Lily hissed and started walking down the hall. She was still cursing under her breath when she reached the Great Hall. She spotted her friends at the far end of the Gryffindor table. She walked over, sitting down between Dorcas and Marlene.

"Ugh, Lily! Why the heck are you wet?" Dorcas exclaimed, and slid a bit away from her on the bench with a disgusted expression on her face.

"It´s windy outside." Lily answered, serving herself some roast beef.

"You were outside?" Mary asked, pouring the redhead some pumpkin juice.

"No, but the window was open and it´s raining and I was standing by the window and ugh!" Lily said, fast and without breathing.

"Right, horrible tragedy. But could you just, I don´t know, dry it or something? You´re dripping on my bag." Marlene asked her, sitting a bit away from her as well.

"And how am I supposed to dry it? Does it look like I´ve got a blow-dryer or what?" Lily asked annoyed. This day was killing her.

"Nah, but assuming you are in a witch school, learning witch stuff and actually are a witch, you could charm it dry." Danny told her slowly, like talking to a child.

"Oh." Lily said, now face palming herself for real. Second time that day Lily had

forgotten about her magical genes. She took out her wand and muttered an incantation. A flow of warmth overcame her.

"Do you know when James is planning on putting the Quidditch trials?" Danny asked her, biting off a piece of bread. Danny had been the Gryffindor seeker since 3rd grade. Lily shook her head.

"Didn't really talk to him much." She answered taking a sip from her juice. Danny nodded and looked down the table.

"Did you finish that essay McGonagall gave us?" Mary asked Lily.

"Yes," Lily said, looking up, "and I even wrote more than just three inches." She added proudly. Danny stopped trying to find James´ head in the mass of students and eyed her suspiciously.

"Who let you copy off?" She asked.

"I did it all alone." Lily answered. It wasn´t a lie. She had wrote it herself, but it wasn´t completely true either. Danny quirked an eyebrow.

"Yeah, right." She said, not sounding convinced at all, but turned around anyway to keep looking for James.

"Why do you wanna ask him right now?" Marlene asked. Danny just shrugged her shoulders and craned her neck to see over the sea of heads.

"Cause I´m busy tomorrow so he can´t do it then or I´ll miss it."

"Anyway," said Marlene, turning to look at Lily now. "I can copy off yours, right? Mary didn´t want to help me and the deadline is tomorrow. Please, Lils! You know I´m shit at Transfiguration!"

"You´re saying it like Lily isn´t." Dorcas said. Lily stuck her tongue out at Dorcas. The latter one kicked Lily on the shin. Friendship is a beautiful thing, isn´t it?

"Cause it was me who set McGonagalls table on fire." Lily reminded her friend of that morning events.

"Well, how good do you expect me to be if I have you as my partner? Besides, it was you who turned Henrys hand into a duck-spider-mutation." Dorcas retorted.

"OI! JAMES!" Their little fight was interrupted by Danny, who was now nearly standing on her chair. She was signalising somebody to come over.

"Merlin´s beard, Danny! Don´t scream like that! I nearly had a heart attack." Mary said now, wiping away some juice from the table she had spilled out from the shock.

"Yeah, yeah, don´t dramatize." Danny said, sitting back down.

"Why can´t you tomorrow? We don´t have afternoon classes, do we?" Mary asked.

"We don´t, but I´m busy." Answered Danny. Marlene was about to ask something, but James had already arrived.

"What´s up, Dana Elisabeth Lucy Addison Johnson?" He said sitting down, one leg at each side of the bench, so he was sitting diagonal on it.

"The trials, when are you going to do them? And I told you not to call me by my full name." Danny asked leaning forward so she could look over Mary, who was sitting between them.

"I don´t know. I was thinking about Friday afternoon, but I have to ask McGonagall first." James said, taking off his glasses and cleaned them with the sleeve of his pullover. Lily looked at him. He was babbling happily with the girls, but Lily wasn´t listening. She was staring at his lips. Light pink and just the right size. They seemed perfect, but now, that Lily was looking at him more closely, he wasn´t perfect. Now, that the glasses didn´t cover them, Lily noticed a thin scar right above his left eye, parting his eyebrow in half. He once said he had gotten it from a bludger, tho Lily wasn´t convinced by that. A bludger couldn´t cut something. You could get a bruise or even break your skull if hit by a bludger in the head, but a scar? But Lily didn´t really care about that right now. She was more concentrating on the fact that she had never really seen him without glasses. Well, if you don´t count those weeks in second grade when he had refused to wear them after Lily had told him he looked stupid with them. Sirius could convince him to put them back on after he had bumped into several walls and a incredible amount of students and Professors (for the exact quantity you can just ask Sirius, he made a tally sheet). But James had been mere twelve years old then, now he was older. He had grown a lot since then, his face was more mature now. He had a noticeable jawline, and a little beauty patch on the right corner of his forehead. It wasn´t big, you could barely see it, but it was there, and it destroyed his perfection.

" ...and as much as I love you checking me out, " James was saying, turning to look at Lily now with a hint of a smirk on his definitely not perfect lips. "why are you doing it?"

"I was not checking you out!" Lily screamed, putting as much emphasis as she could on the not.

"Sure, of course you weren´t." He was smirking like it was his profession.

"You are such an idiot, you know that?" Lily asked furiously, rage filling her.

"Well, now you told me, I now it." He said, casually taking a sip from Mary´s juice. How Lily hated him, how she hated the way his laugh was loud and powerful and pure, how he´ll lean on a door frame crossing his muscular arms before his chest. She hated the way he´ll always ask ´Alright, Evans?´ and run his hand through his hair. She wished she could just pull out every single one of his messy black hairs. Well, just one part of her wished all those things. The other one wanted to be the reason for his laugh, wanted to taste those stupid, stupid lips of his, one part of her just wanted to ruffle those black unruly locks and kiss him, and why not shag him? But Lily had managed to supress that part to that point were she didn´t even realise it existed.

"Anyway, I have to go back to my friends." James said, as if the last part of their conversation had never even happened. He stood up and looked at the girls.

"As much as I hate to, I have to leave and punish you with my cruel and heart-breaking absence." James bowed down in a exaggerated and ridiculous manner. "Farewell, dear friends!" He abruptly stood very straight. He lifted his hand towards his forehead and did one of those gestures military people like to do. He marched away (also in a ridiculous manner) and the little group of girls giggled. Well, all except of one. Lily looked down at her plate, poking her potatoes with her fork like it was their fault Potter was... well, Potter.

"You know, you were checking him out." Danny said, grinning widely.

"I wasn´t!" Lily screamed, a little bit too loud. Some heads turned around to look at her, and when Lily noticed, she quickly lowered her voice. "I was not checking him out." She hissed.

"What were you doing then?" Marlene asked. Well, that caught Lily off-guard.

"I...was...just looking at him." Lily answered. She knew how little convincing that was. But what was she supposed to say? I mean, she was checking him out.

"Sure, just looking." Mary said. "That explains everything, you were just looking."

Lily looked at her plate again, but this time, because she wanted to hide the blush that was making it´s way to her cheeks.

"Why are you busy tomorrow?" Lily said trying to change the conversation in another direction and looked at Danny.

"Ey, don´t try to turn this around on me!" Danny said, throwing up her arm in defence.

"No, but really, why are busy?" Dorcas said now. "You´re never busy."

"I just got some things to do, okay?" Danny said, and now it was her that didn´t want to make eye contact with her friends.

"No, not okay." Marlene answered. "Tell us."

Danny mumbled something.

"What was that?"

"I said I´m minding my own business, how about you try that, too?" Danny said looking up at Mary, who had asked the last question. Lily instinctively thought about the transfiguration book and the afternoon at the sun soaked library.

"Why don´t you want to tell us?" Dorcas asked. Danny didn´t even bother to answer and just pecked at her food. Dorcas sighed desperately. "Why, Danny? WHY?"

"Stop screaming like that, you lunatic! Everybody´s already looking at us." Marlene said, glancing at Dorcas. "She won´t tell us, live with it. Let´s talk about more important things in life."

"Like what?" Lily asked, glad that nobody was bothering her about Potter anymore.

"Like if I can copy off your essay. Please, Lily, please! I was always your bestes best friend!" Marlene said with her best puppy look.

"Bestes isn´t even a word." Responded Mary.

"Doesn´t matter!" Mary replied, making a derogatory gesture in her direction. "Will you let me copy off now or not?"

"Hmm. Let me think about it.." Lily said, faking to really think about it. "No." She said firmly.

"But why, Lily, WHY?" Marlene screamed, leaning forward and clutching the edge of the table.

"Now who´s the lunatic?" Dorcas asked, smiling into her glass. Marlene simply grimaced her and looked at Lily again.

"Please, let me copy off!"

"You never let me copy off"

"Not true, what about that Herbology homework?"

"That was in our second year!"

They continued bitching around, not even noticing how a black haired boy watched them from the other end of the Gryffindor table. Well, not necessarily both of them.

"Prongs? Oi , James! Are you listening?" An annoyed Sirius said, snapping his fingers in front of him to get his attention.

"Yeah, of course, why shouldn´t I?" James stated sounding little convincing.

"Okay, then what were we talking about?" Sirius said.

"Global warming?" James more asked then answered, smiling innocently. Sirius sighed desperately.

"Our welcoming prank, you lame brained cockroach!"

"Correction: You were talking about the prank, we were ignoring you." Remus said, looking at a very un-happy Sirius. "Besides, it´s Monday. We´ve got enough time to plan something."

"But if we put it off the whole time, we´re never going to do it!" Sirius cried, looking at every one of his friends.

"The thing is nobody is in the mood to talk about the prank now, Sirius." Peter said, taking a rather large bite of his steak. "You can tell me your ideas before we go to bed, if you want."

"Okay.." Sirius agreed, not very pleased, though.

"What did Johnson want from you?" Remus asked James, whose gaze had wandered to the end of the table again.

"Huh?"

"Johnson! What did she want from you?" Remus repeated.

"Oh. Asked when the trials are. You´re gonna come too, right, Padfoot? We need you as beater."

"Yeah. I mean, it´s Quidditch." Sirius said, happy to talk about something he liked again. "Do you think Puddlemere United is going to make it into the finals?"

"Of course they will! Did you saw that last goal Jocelind Wadcock scored in their last game against the Montrose Magpies?" James answered. He really was in his element now.

Later that night, James head was still full with Quidditch strategies, players and Quaffles. He was strolling through the big halls of Hogwarts. He turned around in the middle of the corridor and walked straight into what seemed like solid wall. But James walked straight through it. If anybody had seen him, they probably wouldn´t be all too surprised. You get used to weird stuff at Hogwarts. James came out in a totally different corridor, and smiled to himself when he remembered how he had discovered this hidden shortcut. It had been years ago. He was joking around with Sirius and had smacked him on the arm. The young Black then stumbled a bit and accidentally pushed Peter, who fell right through the wall. It wasn´t a really interesting story, but later that same day they had finally confronted Remus with their theory: his fury little problem. James broke out into a full grin now, remembering how Remus nearly had a panic attack when they told him they thought he was a werewolf. James was so engrossed in thought he nearly missed the turn that led him to the Heads Tower. When he reached the entrance, he stepped in front of the painting of the drunk man.

"Darth Vader." He told it firmly. He had tried to find out more about him, but Remus wouldn´t tell him, Peter hadn´t watched the film and Sirius didn´t even knew the word ´film´ existed till that point. So all in all, he hadn´t found out a thing. The painting swung open and he entered the Heads common room. Candles were burning everywhere, so the room was filled in a warm light and the fire was crackling. Although the crackling was barely audible above the loud thunder and the rain that slashed against the windows. He plopped on the sofa. James had closed his eyes and rested his head on the upper part of the backrest when he heard a door open a girls voices.

"Somebody really should complain to McGonagall about the unfair room sizes." James recognised Mary´s voice.

"Yeah, Lily´s room is at least double the size ours, and you have it for you alone." This was Dorcas now. The girls were walking down the staircase of Lily´s dorm.

"Evening, ladies!" James smiled his most charming grin and looked at the bunch of girls that had arrived the painting entrance by now. Mary screamed.

"Jeez, Potter!"

"Wow, am I really that ugly?" James grinned.

"Yes." Danny answered.

"That was a rhetorical question."

"Well, my answer wasn´t."

"Right. What are you doing here anyways?"

"Lily showed us her room." Marlene said, already standing in the narrow passage. "Her shockingly big room."

"That´s really great, but we gotta go." Mary said, pointing at her wristwatch. "Curfew, guys."

"Oh yeah, right. We´ll meet you at 8 then, Lily?" Marlene asked, looking at her own wristwatch. "Gryffindor table, Great Hall?"

"Mhm." Lily waved ass her friends left the room, one by one. The portrait slammed shut and she heard the drunk shout something at the seventh year girls. She turned around to see James smiling at her from his spot on the couch, where he had turned around and was resting his chin on his crossed arms, which were resting on the back of the sofa.

"Hi." He said, way too loud and prolonged.

"Hi." Lily answered, a lot less enthusiastically then James had. "Erm, I´ll go to my room now." Making awkward hand signs towards her room. She certainly didn´t like being with him alone. She cleared her throat. " I´ll go then."

"Yeah, you already said that." James said, chuckling silently.

"Okay, then." Lily said silently, looking at the floor and pulling her sleeves over her fingers.

She started walking and her hand was already on the stair railing when she heard him scream.

"What the heck was that?" Lily turned around alarmed, but found James sitting completely fine on the sofa.

"I wanted you to stop." He stated, also turning around to have a better look on her.

"And a simple ˋHey Evans, stop for a sec" wouldn´t have done it?" Lily asked confused.

"Probably yes, but I didn´t think of that right now." Was the simple answer. Lily frowned and started walking up the stairs when she heard another scream. She turned around. She was really getting pissed.

"What is it now?" She looked him right in the eyes.

"Erm, Evans, stop for a sec." James said, smiling awkwardly up at her.

"Too slow and too forced." Lily took two steps at once and her already reached the top when James screamed again. Lily turned around yet again and glared at him. Did he ever stop?

"Do you ever stop?" Lily tried to intensify her glare.

"Erm, I don´t know... What are you doing with your eyes?" James looked at her slightly perturbed. Lily instantly stopped looking at him in what she thought was an intimidating glare.

"Nothing." She had been in such a good mood. But there it is, the past tense. That was it for that evening, she would go angry to bed. "What do you want anyways?"

"Ask you if you could tell me more about Darth Vader?" James looked up at her expectant and ruffled his hair. Lily looked baffled. She had expected everything, literally everything, but not that.

"What do you want to know?" She asked, leaning with her elbows on the railing.

"I don´t know, just stuff about him."

"Okay then. Erm..." Lily really did not know what to say or where to start. "You know what a movie is, right?"

"Yeah, like pictures that tell a story." James answered proudly. Lily didn´t know

why he was so proud of that answer. Having taking Muggle studies for four years now he should have managed to say something more than ´pictures that tell a story´.

"Yeah, something like that. And, well, there´s this movie called Star Wars, and it´s about, well wars in outta space, and Darth Vader is like, the villian or something? I don´t really know, I don´t like it..." Lily faded away. James nodded, apparently thinking about what she had said.

"Okay.. And what does he look like?"

"Erm, well, he´s got this black cape and a weird black mask and talks like he constantly has angina."

"All right..." James looked at the ceiling. "Gotta let that sink in first... Okay, done." Lily rolled her eyes. "But with what do they fight?"

"Well, they have this cool laser swords they carry around in their pockets or attached to their bum bags or whatever and then they press a button and the sword pops out and then swoosh." Lily had pantomimic showed the movements she had described and was fighting against imaginary storm troopers with her imaginary laser sword (with sound effects and everything) when she heard somebody laugh. She realised how silly she must´ve looked. She straightened up and smoothed her clothes. She cleared her throat.

"Well, good night." Lily quickly turned around and walked in her room, forcefully slammed the door and leant against it. She was brushing hard, even some minutes later when she heard soft knocks on the wooden door, her cheeks were still stained red.

"Evans? I´m sorry, I didn´t want to laugh at you, it´s just – " He didn´t get to finish the sentence because the door opened.

"I´m not angry or something, just tired. Good night." Lily slammed the door shut again without another word.

"Oh." She heard from the other side. "Okay then. Sweet dreams." Lily heard the stairs screak as James walked down. She let herself fall on her bed. The last thing she remembered before falling in an uneasy sleep was hearing an owl hoot in the distance, barely audible above the storm that was raging outside.


End file.
